Monomaniacal socialist 15-minute-city kind of guy, Lloyd, has little empathy for conservative folks who just want to be left alone and make their own decisions in their own “pursuit of Happiness,” be it in suburbia or rural areas. To give his rant a bit more context (something he generally shrugs off as of no account), as we Boomers “…are clueless“, here’s his subtitle and a bit more (some abstracted snippets):
They apparently think that they can drive to their suburban single family house forever.
…Americans want a fuller life, but they don’t want to live where the amenities, the libraries and theaters and bookstores and where the other people are, which is in the city. They are worried about their health but don’t want to be where the hospitals and the doctors and the specialists are. They want peace of mind, but they still want 2,000 square feet of house in the middle of a lawn that has to be mowed, on a cul-de-sac where they can’t get transit. Basically they want what they have now, but on one floor.
…Most (73%) want to stay in their own community, but if they move, the main reason is lowering the cost of living, followed by “feeling safer and more secure and has little or no crime.” Surprisingly, those are considerably higher than being close to family and friends or living in a walkable community.
And he’s adamant about “driving lifespan” for these oldsters – WHY won’t they move into a “walkable city” where they don’t have to drive?
Throughout most of the U.S., most older drivers prefer to drive themselves or be transported in a personal vehicle, even when public transportation is available. As a result, driving is synonymous with personal transportation mobility, and driving cessation is associated with loss of independence combined with becoming a burden to family and friends…Seven to ten years of depression, adverse health outcomes, being a burden to family and friends, all because our society is so dependent on cars.
To recapitulate, Lloyd hates cars, HATES pickups (he barely can see over the hood of today’s pickups), and everyone should be limited to “dorm room” fridges because it means you have to constantly walk [in his 15-minute “utopia] to the [overpriced] convenience store every day as that will force you to talk and comingle with your “community members”.
His utopia, my dystopia; that’s a fun time for him and he should have control over my time/money/choice of living area to make him happy that he’s forced everyone into his “CO2 emissions lowering lifestyle”. Especially the elderly because:
…We have 75 million North American baby boomers, almost all of which will not be able to drive at some point. We need accessible housing, and walkable communities with good sidewalks, corner stores, medical facilities and coffee shops within a reasonable distance. We need good safe accessible transit for when we have to go further. We all must prepare for a non-driving future.
To Lloyd, the physical attributes of one’s living “space” is paramount. I remind him, through a comment left by a p.j. melton, who complained about his mother not being taken care of properly by her grandkids. Yes, the obvious vacancy was “where were her sons and daughters” in all this in trying to buttress Lloyd’s “she shoulda been in a walkable area where everything is close by?”. Sorry, sob story that eliminated HIS responsibility to his Mom (reformatted, emphasis mine):
Really? The generation that gave us this sprawling nightmare of a built environment wants to keep it just as it is forever and ever and ever? I’m shocked! shocked! to discover dissociation from reality going on in this establishment. UGH.
The exact thing you described here happened to my mother when she moved from our semi-walkable, public-transitable neighborhood in Vermont back to our home state of Ohio to be “near” her great grandkids. She moved into the only available subsidized apartment she could find at the time, located in a rural-industrial area with random retail services in shopping strips along a multi-lane state highway that includes no pedestrian infrastructure.
The parents of the great-grandkids [e.g., melton’s family level] moved ALL the way out into the country, leaving my mom behind without a car, without company, and so disabled by rheumatoid arthritis that she could no longer walk the 1/2 mile to the local “corner store” (Dollar General) for milk. A couple months later, the grandkids found her nearly dead in her apartment, an event that set off a cascade of new medical issues, ending in her death from rapid-onset congestive heart failure a few months later.
I’m not saying her living situation killed her. There were many factors and complications. But being old and sick and lonely with very little support was a major and precipitating factor. But hey, she was “safe” from “migrant crime”!
If you noticed, not once did he mention himself. Or his other siblings (if they exist) when it came to taking care of his mother. Did he ever check in on her? Did his siblings?
But look who became the villain – his generation’s kids. He blamed THEM for her condition – and I let him have it. At the same time, I pointed out what seems to be ean ven MORE important point that he has always ignored – relationships (again, reformatted and emphas mine):
A hard question – Why didn’t her immediate sons and daughters take her in instead having the burden on the grandkids? Was it fair to them to have that obligation thrust upon them, especially if unannounced and not wanted? Do you think that the parents were in the wrong for moving?
Was there still family left for her in VT?
We are lucky – our sons both left our area (1 is over 3 hours away, the other 1.5 hours away) but they both want us to move in with them. While Lloyd just can’t seem to understand why people won’t live their lives in places he approves of (“walkable communities), I certainly know what others like us, in suburban and rural areas, are refusing to move – it is THEIR friends and THEIR communities that would be taken from them. That can be almost as important as being with family.
Imagine moving to an unknown area, not knowing a soul, and having (perhaps) a mere few handful of years to replace such long-term and necessary relationships with others. It isn’t just “what’s close” and it isn’t just “walkable” – it’s the people part.
And if one can’t drive, they may well not be able to walk very far, either. I know – my wife is disabled with respect to walking and has been for years. So for her, walkable communities are irrelevant. I assume that there are a lot of others in the same situation.
Self-driving cars. Being a former techie, I am amazed at how fast FSD capabilities are appearing in just the last couple/few years. With the exploding AI capabilities being trained via real time driving (e.g., Grok and Tesla, et al), I believe that it will be fairly usable in as little as 5 short years (plus or minus) in certain conditions (highways first, crowded urban areas later). So in this, I disagree heartily with Lloyd’s rather dim view of AV short term horizon.
My blogging friend, VB, agreed that Lloyd has missed the most important thing to the elderly – the idea of belonging:
OMG, you hit the mark on this one **BIG TIME**, Grok!
I just read an article yesterday (https://www.cnbc.com/2025/01/14/mel-robbins-3-reasons-its-hard-to-make-friends-when-youre-older.html) about why it’s so hard to make friends as an adult. I recognize this happening in myself at age 53; the generational gap in socialization skills and preferences between myself and younger cohorts such as my girlfriend’s nephews and nieces who are in their mid- to late-20’s is immense.
From music preferences to recreational choices (think online gaming vs. card playing or camping) and much more, time is not kind to us as we age—and yet, the most helpful thing we can do as we get older is to create and maintain meaningful personal relationships with our fellow human beings…If it was such a concern to you that your mother wasn’t being looked after appropriately, why didn’t YOU move to Ohio rather than leave her wellness checks to indifferent siblings?
Car culture has little to do with that if relocation to be closer to family (a) isn’t as meaningful of a relationship that we believe exists and (b) means we rip ourselves away from the long-term friendships established over many years and decades.
I wound it up with this:
In another post, I/we had that argument with “Arthur” about we all are one tribe and that we must act accordingly. My retort is that, in no way, can he place such an obligation on anyone that demands that any of us, mandatorily, must take care of others – that I MUST be everyone else’s Keeper.
I did respond that I AM my immediate family’s keeper – both by blood and by marriage vows. Secondarily, that extends (in a much weaker state), to friends. Someone in China, not at all – nor anyone that I don’t know or have an existing relationship.
I have maintained that for my family, I AM the First Responder. We still call our sons to see how they and theirs are doing. We took in our 12 year old granddaughter for almost a year as part of that (until Govt/DCYF realized that they got things HORRIBLY wrong) as that was our duty and responsibility (no going into the Foster Care system for her!).
So Family is responsible for family – and yes, VB, the bonds should depend on the generational inter-links more than just lip-service. To return to the VT to Ohio scenario.
I dare say that the biggest killer of the elderly, if in part if not in whole, is Loneliness. If you find, because of your age, that no one, especially family, is interested in you, why be interested in Life?
That can be the beginning of the end and one can slowly just fade away from emptiness.
Commenter Lisa summed it up well after others went after Lloyd (and others after Lisa):
American Boomers are well aware of what they want. They just don’t want what you think they should. That doesn’t make them clueless.
When I read that Lloyd called us “clueless,” immediately what came to mind was Hillary and her “deplorable,” as well as Obama and his “bitter clingers.”
